by Phillip Smith

Hemp field at sunrise (Vote Hemp)

 
A bill to allow farmers to register to grow industrial hemp in Kentucky was filed Thursday. House Bill 286 has 12 co-sponsors.

Hemp field at sunrise (Vote Hemp)

 

The bill would create a process through which farmers could apply to grow hemp and then be vetted by state officials. If applicants passed a background check, they would pay a fee to be registered to grow hemp.
Hemp production is prohibited under federal law (unless the DEA authorizes a permit, which it doesn’t), and the bill acknowledges as much, saying “nothing in [this bill] shall be construed to authorize any person to violate any federal rules or regulations.”
But bill supporters said passage of a hemp legalization bill would send a message to Washington that Kentucky is joining the list of states that want to grow hemp. Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, a former House member, is among those supporters.
 
Read complete article here:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2012/jan/20/hemp_farming_bill_filed_kentucky
 

CINCINNATI — Backers of a ballot proposal to legalize medical marijuana in Ohio have been cleared by the state attorney general to begin gathering the roughly 385,000 signatures needed to put it on the November ballot.Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said Friday that he has certified the first 1,000 valid signatures, and cleared summary petition language on the proposed Ohio Medical Cannabis Amendment as fair and truthful.The amendment to Ohio’s constitution would allow those with a debilitating medical condition to use, possess, produce and acquire marijuana and paraphernalia.

http://www.wlwt.com/r/30263856/detail.html
 

Advocates applaud decision to review Long Beach & Riverside dispensary regulation cases

The California Supreme Court issued an order today indicating its intent to review two controversial medical marijuana cases that have resulted in the suspension of several local dispensary ordinances across the state. As a result of today’s order, Pack v. City of Long Beach and City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patient’s Health and Wellness Ctr., Inc. have both been vacated in anticipation of the High Court’s ruling. The Pack decision held that some dispensary regulations may be preempted by federal law and the Riverside decision held that localities could legally ban distribution altogether.
“These cases were very problematic for patients and their ability to safely and legally access a medication that works for them,” said Joe Elford, Chief Counsel of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the country’s leading medical marijuana advocacy group. “We’re very pleased that local governments will now be unable to use appellate court decisions to deny patients access to medical marijuana in their own communities.”
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.theweedblog.com/california-supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-controversial-medical-cannabis-cases/
 

 
Cancer drugs that are designed to shrink tumours by cutting off the supply to their blood may be doing the opposite and helping them spread to other parts of the body, a study has warned.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School in Boston investigated the drugs in question, Glivec and Sutent, and discovered that although it’s proven that they reduce the size of the cancer tumour – it could also make them more aggressive and mobile as a result.
Experts looked at a little-studied group of cells called pericytes, which provide structural support to the blood vessels and act as a ‘gatekeeper’ that stops tumours growing.
However, these pericyte cells are wiped out by advanced cancer drug treatments that are designed to prevent the growth, meaning the tumour has more freedom to ‘metastasise’, or spread, around the body.
Glivec, the brand name of the drug imatinib, and Sutent, also known as sunitinib, have both shown to significantly increase patient survival rates. However, researchers argue that ultimately, these drugs could be making the cancers more deadly, as metastasis to vital organs, such as the liver or brain, are two chief causes of cancer deaths.
The study, published in the Cancer Cell journal, came to this conclusion after removing pericytes from breast cancer tumours in genetically engineered mice. Throughout the following 25 days, researchers saw a 30% decrease in tumour growth but a three-fold increase in the number of secondary tumours growing in the animals’ lungs.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/17/cancer-drugs-might-help-tumours-spread_n_1210647.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl9|sec3_lnk2&pLid=128251&ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
 

Proving once again that fact is stranger than fiction, brave medical patients share their struggles to access an unjustly demonized medicinal herb that helps them. A compassionate doctor presents scientific evidence to support the stigmatized plant’s effectiveness in treating more than a dozen medical conditions. This film puts a human face on some of the collateral damage from the war on drugs.
This is the complete film. Wait through the 10 second black leader for the slate. The movie starts ten seconds after the slate.
Produced by Maine Green Cross.
 
Here’s the link to the movie:
http://vimeo.com/31260840
 

By Tim Elfrink

via Florida Senate

The new face of Florida pot reform

 
 
If you’d told Larcenia Bullard 35-years ago – back when she was teaching school kids for a living — that she’d one day use her lofty platform as a Florida state Senator to advocate for marijuana reform, she would have banished you to the principal’s office. “I would not have possibly imagined that to be true,” Bullard says, laughing. “It was not an issue I’d given two thoughts to before.”
Yet today Bullard – a 64-year-old woman who spent last year toting an oxygen cart around Tallahassee because of heart problems — has become the unlikely hero of the Sunshine State’s budding cannabis movement. When Bullard sponsored a bill last week that would give voters a chance to legalize medical marijuana, bringing pot reform bills to both the Senate and House for the first time in three decades, her phone started blowing up with support.
“I’ve been shocked at the number of people calling and promising to come to the capitol to talk about how medical cannabis has helped them,” Bullard says.
 
Read complete article here:
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2012/01/medical_marijuanas_unlikely_ne.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93acNWu01Vg&feature=share

By Alicia Gallegos, amednews staff

A handful of governors have launched a new push for marijuana to be reclassified so that the drug is more widely accepted for medical treatment.
By mid-December 2011, three governors had signed a petition asking the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to conduct a new scientific review of cannabis research. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin was the latest to add his signature to a petition started Nov. 30, 2011, by Washington state Gov. Chris Gregoire and Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s administration made a similar request to the DEA on Dec. 22, 2011, according to the governor’s spokesman.
Public attitudes toward medical marijuana are changing, and medical organizations across the country have recognized the drug’s potential benefits for medical use, Gregoire’s petition says. The DEA classifies marijuana as a schedule I drug, meaning it’s not approved for any medical use. A schedule II classification would allow the drug to be used for medical purposes but still would be tightly restricted.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/01/16/gvsc0116.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSJ1mzI6bVQ&feature=youtu.be